Also a "top director", the gap between Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige Zhang Yimou has long been foreshadowed
Recently, Feng Xiaogang, who has been silent for a while, began to frequently appear in various film circle activities, but it exposed his embarrassing current situation in the film industry, especially the gap between him and Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou now, at a glance, which is embarrassing.
At the Huabiao Award ceremony, Chen Kaige, Wu Jing, Zhang Ziyi and others talked and laughed and sat in the second row of seats.
Feng Xiaogang and his wife Xu Fan were arranged to the third row and chatted with Yang Ying.
In the backstage of another event, Feng Xiaogang was ridiculed as a "social expert", running around the venue to greet others, including Chen Kaige, Wu Jing, Shen Teng and Nicholas Tse.
Feng Xiaogang, as a great director who used to be as famous as Chen Kaige, now took the initiative to run to greet Chen Kaige, Chen Kaige sat in the position the whole time, and Feng Xiaogang bent down and bowed his head, with a modest expression, more like a junior.
In the past two years, Zhang Yimou has won the honor of "National Teacher" and holds a popular work such as "Manjiang Hong". Chen Kaige has the "Changjin Lake" series, and the "Volunteer Army: Heroic Attack" series prepared in his hand is a key project, and the resources of these two are currently in the mainstream circle are top.
Feng Xiaogang is just the opposite, since "Fang Hua" in 2017 to "Only Yun Knows" in 2019, Feng Xiaogang has almost become a "transparent person" in the film industry. His switch to the TV industry to shoot "North and South" and "Echo" is also not a big splash.
Feng Xiaogang, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou were once representatives of the "top directors" in China at a certain time, why did they have such a big gap in their later years?
First, they are all "fifth-generation directors", but their backgrounds are different
At the peak of Feng Xiaogang, he was once on a par with Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, and was a representative of the "fifth generation of directors" in China, but in fact, Feng Xiaogang's origin is very different from the other two, especially Chen Kaige.
Chen Kaige's film career owes much to his father Chen Huaihao, who is the "third generation director" of domestic films. In Chen Kaige's pinnacle work "Farewell My Concubine", Chen Huaihao is the art director.
With such a background and the guidance of his father, Chen Kaige has enough confidence to create, and his film road is going very smoothly. It is not difficult to understand why Chen Kaige always gives people a feeling of "arrogance", perhaps this is the confidence that his origin brings him.
Although Zhang Yimou's origin is not as good as Chen Kaige, and even experienced a difficult period, when Chen Kaige was already a director, Zhang Yimou was still only a photographer, but he couldn't bear Zhang Yimou's real material, plus the help of his ex-wife Xiao Hua, Zhang Yimou successfully embarked on the road of directing.
But in any case, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou are both from science classes, in contrast, Feng Xiaogang has neither a superior background nor a science class, originally just an artist, he can go to the position of a well-known director, all by himself "kill".
It is said that many resources of the mainland film circle are in the hands of the "Beijing circle", and behind the "Beijing circle" is the "big yard disciples" who are generally not simple, like Zheng Xiaolong, Wang Shuo are all "big yard disciples", Feng Xiaogang without a background, the first "stepping stone" is Zheng Xiaolong and Wang Shuo, one is very good at "guiding", the other is very good at "writing".
Zheng Xiaolong had the top resources in the TV industry at that time, and he described Feng Xiaogang as very good at talking and familiar. Feng Xiaogang began to run errands behind Zheng Xiaolong and Wang Shuo, while quickly entering this circle, he successfully grew from an "artist" to a "director" under various coincidences.
Second, the style route is different
Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige's route and film style are more similar, they both became famous at the beginning by making literary and art films, Zhang Yimou has "Red Sorghum", "Big Red Lantern Hangs High" and "Alive", Chen Kaige has "Farewell My Concubine", "Yellow Earth" and "Jing Ke's Assassination of the King of Qin" and so on.
Because Zhang Yimou is a cameraman, his film color and sense of picture are very outstanding, but later some netizens felt that some of his films were "more form than content", and Chen Kaige's style paid more attention to the humanistic spirit, which may also be related to his background.
Feng Xiaogang followed Wang Shuo and Zheng Xiaolong in the early days and wrote two episodes of the script of "The Story of the Editorial Department", but what really made him famous was "Feng's Comedy", "Party A and Party B", "Big Shot" and so on put him in the position of "the father of mainland New Year films".
From the perspective of the achievements of the award, Feng Xiaogang is far less than Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou's achievements in foreign awards and nominations needless to say, Gong Li's performance achievements abroad are to a large extent Zhang Yimou's achievements, and he is also the director who has won the most awards and nominations in the three major film festivals in China.
Chen Kaige has a "Farewell My Concubine", which is the only film in China to win the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
But Feng Xiaogang still killed a bloody road with "Feng's comedy", at his peak, he said that he was "alone and seeking defeat", everything he filmed was watched by people, and everything he filmed had a box office.
Feng Xiaogang at his peak may not have imagined that the audience would one day not like watching what he filmed. After experiencing box office failures one after another, Feng Xiao just lamented that his era has passed, and the audience always likes to watch comedy, but not necessarily likes to watch Feng Xiaogang's comedy.
Of course, Feng Xiaogang will not only shoot "Feng's comedy", he also handed over works such as "Tangshan Earthquake", "1942" and other works, although "1942" is not controversial, but some netizens still feel that in fact, Feng Xiaogang is a very good storytelling director, and his level is no worse than Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.
Third, the "backers" are different
In their later years, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige still hold the top resources of the mainstream film industry. Zhang Yimou became a "national teacher", he is low-key and focused on film creation, although the outside world is controversial about him, but his career reputation is very good.
Although Chen Kaige has been repeatedly victimized because of "family affairs" reviews, he is still the central figure in the circle of "new film circles" such as Wu Jing, Shen Teng, and Zhang Ziyi, and has a high status in the mainstream film industry.
As for the 65-year-old Feng Xiaogang, he struggled from "Feng Pants" to "Little Steel Cannon", but he did not expect to become "Feng Pants" in his later years, and has been "abandoned" by the mainstream film circle.
Feng Xiaogang and the other two are in a different situation now, a big reason is that he is always "depending" on others, first relying on Wang Shuo Zheng Xiaolong, after Wang Shuo "left", he cooperated with "Huayi" and once made a lot of money, but with the decline of "Huayi" later, Feng Xiaogang himself experienced the "Mobile Phone 2" incident, and he became "nothing".
However, even if Feng Xiaogang retires here, he has actually earned a lot of assets that ordinary people can't earn in a lifetime. Previously, when he cooperated with Huayi, he first cashed out 200 million, and then Huayi used 1 billion to buy his company.
Some time ago, there were rumors that Feng Xiaogang emigrated abroad, when someone picked up his two mansions abroad, worth tens of millions.
However, Feng Xiaogang does not seem to plan to retire, he still has "Do Not Disturb 3" ready to be released in the future, if the film is successful, then Feng Xiaogang's path as a director may still have a way out.